UP students lob plastic bags of paint at school official

University of the Philippines (UP) students lobbed plastic bags containing green paint at a school official who was supposed to attend a meeting discussing the imposition of new fees. UP Los Baños Chancellor Luis Rey Velasco went to UP Diliman to attend a regular Board of Regents (BOR) meeting on Wednesday. The meeting was about the planned imposition of graduation and laboratory fees, a move fiercely contested by student activists from the state university. But when he tried entering Quezon Hall, where the meeting was being held, he was blocked by the student protesters who had barricaded the entrance. Left with no choice, Velasco returned to his vehicle. As he was leaving, student protesters began lobbing plastic bags containing paint at his vehicle. Visibly irked, Velasco faced the protesters and dared them to hurl “paint balls" at him with arms wide open. The students, only too willing to give in, threw plastic bags on the official, splattering green paint all over his white polo. "Pasensya na po kayo kung ganyan talaga ang salita ng mga estudyante ng UP ngayon. Nakakalungkot [We apologize for the behavior of UP students. It’s saddening]," Velasco told reporters before leaving the area. Student activists opposed the planned imposition of new fees, saying poor UP students can no longer bear the burden of additional expenses. Several years ago, tuition in the state university almost tripled from the usual 18-unit semester tuition of P6,000 to almost P20,000. In justifying the increase, the UP adminsitration said the P300-per-unit tuition used to be implemented in UP was already outdated and had to updated.
The protesting students also aired their objection over the non-inclusion of student regents — who represent the student body — in meetings of the board of regents. The group also opposed the recent appointment of Enrique Domingo as director of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). Domingo replaced Dr. Jose Gonzales who was elected by the BOR as PGH director on December 18 through a 6-5 vote. The vote, however, was later nullified. Several PGH doctors also joined the student protesters to express how the change of leadership had "demoralized" PGH employees. As protesters called for the resignation of UP president Emerlinda Roman, they also draped a black cloth on the iconic Oblation Statue in front of the Quezon Hall to signify the alleged death of democracy in the state university. A brief tension erupted when school security tried warding off the protesting students and doctors. Ultimately, the meeting did not push through after some members of the BOR failed to attend. The protesters are set to proceed to the office of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to continue their rally. PUP The CHED building is currently the same venue where students of another state university — the Polyechnic University of the Philippines — are holding a protest of their own to denounce the planned 2,000 percent tuition increase. A radio dzMM report said before trooping to the CHED, the students gathered at PUP in Sta. Mesa, Manila where they hurled school chairs from the sixth floor of their buildings. Divina Pasumbal, PUP spokesperson, said she understood the grievances of the students but advised them to comport themselves properly because the image of an "iskolar ng bayan" (refering to students from state universities) was at stake. Pasumbal said compared to other state universities, PUP's annual budget of P600 million was already considered small, given that it is home to as many as 65,000 students. PUP president Dante Gueverra justified the need to increase school fees from P12 per unit to P200 per unit. That means that incoming freshmen for the concerned courses will have to pay P4,800 for a 24-unit semester. Guevarra said lawmakers were to be blamed if ever the huge tuition hike pushes through. The PUP president said he always attended budget hearings in Congress and always got disappointed because legislators do not seem to prioritize budgets for higher education. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV